Page 18 - Logan County Farm Outlook - Spring 2013

2013 LOGAN COUNTY FARM OUTLOOK MAGAZINE. LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com March 21, 2013
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During the early 1930s, farming
practices changed because
of a single technological
breakthrough: harvesting with
combines. This changed everything for
the producer because
larger crops could be
planted and harvested
economically. As many
as 100 million acres of
ground in Kansas, New
Mexico, Oklahoma,
TexasandKansaswere
put into production.
Hedgerows were
eliminated to make
more acreage for production. Moldboard
plows were used to make deep furrows,
exposing huge amounts of good soil for
production. The plan
was to change the
world by producing
so much wheat that
everyone would have
enough to eat.
By coincidence,
an extended period
of drought and heat affecting much of
the United States and Canada began at
exactly the same time. It was remarked
that the drought and heat of the ’30s
was a plague of biblical proportions.
Instead of increasing
the wheat yield, the
drought and heat
turned the whole
country into what
became known as
the Dust Bowl, a 10-
year period of ruined
acreage, blowing soil
and deep economic
depression.
It is a fact that the abandonment
of farming practices such as the
maintenance of hedgerows and crop
rotation, plus open tillage and the
lack of cover crops were the greatest
contributing causes to the Dust Bowl,
but the drought of the ’30s and the
intensification of heat also contributed
to ruining the soil on as many as 10
million acres, according to Wikipedia.
In light of the drought and heat of 2012
The condition of Logan County soils